I’m concerned by this dynamic. I’m concerned that when stories of scandal ring in our ears and wring out our hearts, our vision for what the community of faith could and should look like becomes stunted and malformed by fear. I’m concerned that we despair, withdraw, and give up because our fear of getting it wrong overrules the command to love the brother and sister right next to us.

How, then, can we cultivate communities with healthy male-female relationships?

The gospel does instruct us to take an honest and unflinching look at sin, but it also calls us to look beyond it. We are brothers and sisters in Christ, and avoiding each other for fear of doing harm falls far short of what the Father envisions for his family.

Just as I ultimately want more from my marriage than to “avoid having an affair,” and I want more for my children than “not landing in jail,” so too the Scriptures call us to a bigger vision for church than “We had no sex or abuse scandals.” We are called to love one another, which includes but far exceeds the bar of “Don’t hurt each other.”